You Almost Had Us With That Tim Tebow Analogy, Chris Kluwe…

…and then you tried to tell us that Tim Tebow was better than other backup quarterbacks in the league right now.

We’re not buying that, even if you gave it to us for free and threw in a copy of your book. And we liked your book.

The former Vikings punter was on “Olbermann” last night discussing the piece he wrote for Deadspin about his final season, and offseason, in Minnesota. The discussion turned to the broader idea of having an individual identity in a league that values conformity above all. It’s actually a topic that we covered on our podcast yesterday — team management is more likely to value a player that keeps his mouth shut over one that doesn’t, all things being equal.

Olbermann himself made a comparison to Tim Tebow, ex-NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst. Kluwe agreed (emphasis ours):

“As much as we are polar opposites on the things we stand for, Tebow is the exact same way.

“There are backup quarterbacks in the NFL right now that Tebow is certainly better than — he could fill a role with a team,” Kluwe said. “But because he brings this other stuff with him, just like I bring my other stuff with me, teams look at it like, ‘We don’t want it. We don’t want players speaking out. We don’t want players doing anything other than football.’”

Did Tebow’s circus act (which comes from a combination of his outspoken faith and his ridiculous, only kinda-justified popularity) play a role in keeping him off an NFL roster? Probably. Does Kluwe’s stance — now bolstered by the scathing piece he wrote — keep him from getting looks? Probably.